Gabriela Mistral (1889-1967), Chile's 'other' great poet of the twentieth century, is little known outside the Spanish-speaking world, and unlike Pablo Neruda has not been extensively translated into English.

This volume provides both a detailed biography of the author and a careful analysis of her writing.

During her lifetime Mistral published four books: Desolation, Tenderness, Clearcut, and Winepress. These are included in the "Complete" Nobel edition published in Madrid; the Poem of Chile, her last book, was printed years after her death.

In these pieces, Mistral infuses the traditionally objective essay form with the intimate and subjective, thereby creating an alternate space for women intellectuals in the public sphere.

The book also explores Mistral's Pan-American vision and her desire to be part of a unified American hemisphere as well as her concern for the Caribbean and Brazil.

How this distinctly masculine woman who never gave birth came to occupy this role, and what Mistral's image, poetry, and life have to say about the relations-and realities-of race, gender, and sexual politics in her time, are the questions ...

The Nobel Prize–winning poet Gabriela Mistral is celebrated by her native Chile as the “mother of the nation” even though she spent most of her life in Mexico, Europe, and the United States.

The volume explores how these three writers used poetry to oppose patriarchal discourse on topics ranging from marginalized peoples to issues on gender and sexuality.